April 2015 Blog Posts (147)

Delray Beach has dropped out of a lawsuit to determine how cities pay for the county Inspector General’s Office.“The Inspector General has been instrumental in helping us focus on best practices,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said in explaining the City Commission’s unanimous April 6 vote. “This sends a signal that we appreciate what they have done for us.”The Inspector General has acted like an external auditor for the city since Glickstein and…

Lawyers for the town of Gulf Stream are having a good spring, winning three court rulings in cases raised by Martin O’Boyle and Chris O’Hare, the town’s litigious duo.Meanwhile, Town Manager William Thrasher says his early budget estimates call for setting aside $800,000 to cover the town’s rising legal costs during the next year, and commissioners are planning a special budget workshop to update taxpayers on all that’s going on.The rulings…

Let me say up front that this is not about the former Ocean Ridge police chief. It is not even about what led up to his more-than-$80,000 settlement with the town. This is about the right of taxpayers to know how the government they support operates. It should be simple: File a public records request and get a copy of the records within a reasonable amount of time, with a bill for expenses the town incurred fulfilling the request. Instead, a public records request filed by…

Louise Mirkin poses in front of a portrait of The Faulk Center founder, Dr. Elizabeth H. Faulk. Faulk, the first woman to receive a doctorate in psychology from the University of Florida, established a successful private practice in Boca Raton.…

The Winn-Dixie grocery store’s absence from Riverwalk Plaza cleared the way for the center’s owner to plan a better use of the nearly 10-acre property. The 119,199-square-foot shopping center sits along Woolbright Road, from Federal Highway to nearly the…

Ocean Ridge police officer Richard Jones stops in Briny Breezes to talk with Judy Dugan and her dog Rudy. Jones recently suggested that Briny might be served by a bicycle patrol to allow for easier movement in the community and promote more interaction with…

Ocean Ridge town commissioners have decided they already have their best police chief candidate in uniform.The Town Commission unanimously approved interim Chief Hal Hutchins as the permanent choice on April 6 and abandoned plans to advertise the position or consider outside candidates.…

They were talking trash at the Lantana Town Council meeting on April 13, and it wasn’t the first time. Some residents continue to put yard trimmings curbside on the wrong day and other residents are complaining about the lingering mess.Earlier this year the town encouraged its trash handler, Republic Services, to distribute fliers outlining the rules. Officials said the problem was largely due to confusion about the proper day, and way, to…

Grand theft charges will be dropped against Robert Matthew Van Winkle, aka rapper Vanilla Ice, as long as he fulfills a plea deal that will have him doing 100 hours of community service and meeting a few other conditions during the next year.Van Winkle, a former rapper turned real estate renovator, lives in Wellington and was arrested Feb. 18, accused of taking a patio set, furniture, bicycles, a pool heater and other items from a vacant…

Lake Boca was filled with boats, partiers and music on April 26 for Boca Bash, an annual party on the Intracoastal Waterway between the Camino Real and Palmetto Park Road bridges. The Boca Bash takes place each spring. In the foreground is a boat…

Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Gregory Keyser has scheduled a May 6 hearing to consider whether organizers of the movement to recall Ocean Ridge Town Commissioner Richard Lucibella have submitted legally valid petitions. Lucibella’s attorney, Sidney Calloway, has asked the court to throw out the petitions, claiming they contain errors and are improperly filled out — “legally insufficient,” he says. Haley Joyce, one of the movement’s…

For the first time in more than 19 years, Delray Beach will offer a summer GreenMarket. The question is where. Market Manager Lori Nolan proposed the Block 60 parking lot on Northwest First Avenue, just east of the Tennis Center and west of Swinton Avenue. She said the community had asked for the summer GreenMarket when making her presentation April 23 to the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency board, which runs the program. She…

FAU professor John Hardman draws a chalk line through the Marina Historic District in Delray Beach. As part of an Earth Day art performance, participants took turns using the wheeled marker to draw a line along the 4-foot mark, which is an average of where flood waters…

Atlantic Crossing has received preliminary city approval for a critical plat that is necessary before the $200 million mixed-use project can get construction permits.The plat that was approved by a 5-1 vote of the city’s Planning and Zoning Board on April 20 doesn’t include an access road from Federal Highway that an overflow crowd argued is necessary to relieve traffic congestion on Atlantic Avenue.The vote came after an Atlantic Crossing…

It began with a request to give homeless people a shower — and ended with city commissioners saying the Caring Kitchen must move.Christians Reaching Out to Society, known as CROS Ministries, serves nearly 100,000 hot meals to poor people each year in a city-owned building at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Northwest Eighth Avenue. “It’s a critical need and nobody wants it in their backyard,” Mayor Cary Glickstein…